PHOSPHATE MINING OFFICIALS-POOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDS

Over the past seventy years, Florida’s phosphate industry let many man-made severe environmental accidents occur one after another over the years, causing serious environmental impacts to pristine “one of a kind” ecological regions of Florida. The Florida taxpayers are also paying for the court costs, attorney fees, and the like while the court battles continue daily between federal and state environmental agencies versus Florida’s industry officials.

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(Fig. 1) Lithia Springs- Spring Opening

PEACE RIVER VALLEY

The Peace River watershed lies in west central Florida about forty miles east of the Tampa Bay area. Florida’s Peace River was declared an “endangered river” by “American Rivers.org,” a non-profit organization committed to protecting and restoring North American rivers.

The central Florida region holds unique pristine watersheds, marshlands, bogs, and other freshwater naturally occurring filtering systems. Watersheds are areas of land with waterways that flow to a common destination. Most of the region's drinking water is pumped from aquifers that are “recharged” from the watersheds described above. READ MORE HERE(Fig. 3) Peace River Spring Fed Tributary

FLORIDA'S DISAPPEARING AQUIFERS

(Fig. 1) Phosphate Strip Mines Operations!

PHOSPHATE MORE VALUABLE THAN AQUIFERS?

The southwest central Florida area is located over one of the largest phosphate deposits on the North American continent!

..."In 2000, ($1,130,000,000) or $1.13 billion dollars worth of phosphate based fertilizer was exported from Florida making it another one of Florida's leading export commodities", says the Department of Environmental Protection Services.

What is destroying southwest central Florida's natural springs, localized aquifers, and the old swimming hole like no other?

Take a closer look at what you can see from satellite, (Fig. 1). As you look at the Google Map, you see a large land area, about (30) thirty miles east of the Tampa Bay Area, in the peninsula of Florida. You can see numerous, very large man made square or rectangular shaped holes shown in blue and filled with fresh water from the newly crushed aquifers.

These square blue holes are distinguishable from Florida's beautiful natural blue lakes and ponds in this area. These giant square blue holes are man made craters. These craters are made by phosphate draglines digging for phosphate, down a hundred feet. They dig through Florida's natural water supply in the form of underground water tables or "aquifers". Some Florida phosphate strip mines scar the earth a full square mile.

Florida's aquifer systems took nature millennia to perfect and many are now totally destroyed. How and why is this happening?

Valuable phosphate is removed which leaves huge blue holes as seen from space. The beautiful big blue holes are ten's of thousands of acres of phosphate strip mines. The blue hole are created where the local natural aquifers are being completely destroyed.

Draglines are so large and numerous, mining thousands of acres of overburden is just a months work. Draglines mine down a hundred feet, penetrating, cutting through, crushing and completely removing the natural aquifers. Thus, untold volumes of water no longer contained by the aquifers are free to fill strip mines in the southwest central Florida earth.

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DISAPEARING WATERSHEDS

Central Florida's groundwater and aquifers are becoming extinct by watershed destruction via phosphate strip mining operations. Florida's natural watersheds, known to the Florida phosphate mining industry as phosphate overburden, are being destroyed for the beginnings of a phosphate strip mine. Where is the balance between Florida politics, industry, and the Public?

WHAT IS AN AQUIFER

An aquifer is contained in the sub-surface encased in a body of saturated rock which also contain caverns and watersheds.

In this case the rock is limestone based, through which water can easily be contained and also move as though it is in a sub-surface river.

Aquifers must be both permeable and porous and include such rock types as sandstone, conglomerate, fractured limestone and unconsolidated sand and gravel. This type of earthen material contains enough drinking water for millions of Florida's citizens year after year.

Central Florida is made of just such a rock landscape and truley does contain everyone's fresh water resources.

However, phosphate officials are "permitted" by the state of Florida to remove everything mentioned above "containing" everyone's freshwater resources in very large tracts of land, measured in square miles, to reach the valuable phosphate rock they seek.